Sonja’s Comments (group member since Apr 13, 2013)

Sonja’s comments from the Geekly Reader group.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (long, but wow!!)

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris

I'm finding the lack of names eerie, but also an interesting way to keep the reader at a distance from the characters. They're not people. They're a job. Which also makes it strangely uncomfortable for the biologist to keep telling us details about her life and her previous connection with Area X ... like she's doing something wrong or invasive because she is only supposed to be a generic job.

I'm riveted by the strange tunnel vs tower tension, but it makes me uncomfortable. What were your initial reactions to the tower/tunnel?

Area X is freaking me out. We have chosen a thoroughly disturbing story. I don't see any obvious connection, but reading this gives me the same feeling (not a good feeling - a pulled down, bothered feeling) as the Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

I just finished "The World's Strongest Librarian" by Josh Hanagarne. I'll be meeting him tomorrow, so that's why I started it ... But I raced through it because it is the very best kind of memoir - funny, occasionally heart-wrenching, sometimes uncomfortably honest, and so interesting.

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers. Not my choice. Work-related. While it has some interesting elements, I am mostly finding it long and weird.

Ooh! I second The Left Hand of Darkness and the Earthsea Trilogy, but also - The Wind's Twelve Quarters, which contains two LeGuin stories I've never forgotten - Direction of the Road and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.

I shall now reveal how long it has been since I seriously read fantasy. I loved reading about Pern, but frankly, it sounds like a terrifying place to live. I'm completely intrigued by the gender-bending Hainish world of "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula LeGuin, but again ... it seemed uncomfortable. I think of all the "not-here" places I've visited, I'd most want to stay in Mattapoisett from "Woman on the Edge of Time" by Marge Piercy. It was all so warm and hippie-infused ... like my childhood!

My current favorite is "Rot & Ruin" by Jonathan Maberry.

Gandalf is and always will be the best wizard!

Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn

Sounds very interesting! I'm in!

Despite my best efforts, I cannot stop thinking about "Between Shades of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys. It tells the story of the residents of the Baltic states who were arrested and deported to Siberia during the Stalinist regime in Russia. Focusing on a 16-year-old girl, her 10-year-old brother, and her mother, it lays bare the inhumanly vicious treatment to which the deportees were subjected by the NKVD (secret police.) Awful. Devastating. I feel like there is no way to find a "why" behind that level of cruelty.

I have also felt it was unfortunate that this book was released only 6 or 9 months before "50 Shades of Gray" and wonder how many YA readers think they're getting quite a different kind of story when they pick it up.

So, I'm feeling particularly awesome this morning. I have found myself wondering - what is the most awesome book you have read lately? The one that just sticks in your head and replaying little scenes in your imagination?